August has been a month to remember for Dodgers pitcher Ricky Nolasco. In six starts he is 5-0 with a 1.64 ERA. LYNNE SLADKY, AP

LOS ANGELES – In an eight-year career that has taken him from Corona to Chicago to Miami and now back to where he began, Dodgers right-hander Ricky Nolasco has started 207 major league games over 40 months.

And not a single one of those months has been as good as August 2013.

In 381/3 innings over six starts this month, his first full one as a Dodger, Nolasco posted a 1.64 ERA, with a 5-0 record and a strikeout-walk ratio approaching 6-1.

If not for teammates Zack Greinke and Clayton Kershaw, Nolasco would be a leading candidate for the National League Pitcher of the Month award.

But Greinke and Kershaw have been dominant of late – or all year, in the latter case – and Nolasco has quietly been the most dependable No. 4 starter in the majors, behind those two and South Korean rookie Hyun-Jin Ryu.

Nolasco’s 3.26 ERA would be the best for a qualified starting pitcher on nine of the 30 major league teams – ace territory, no doubt. His 2.20 ERA as a Dodger would best every starter in baseball, save Kershaw.

“It’s a different feeling going out there with this team behind you, knowing how dangerous our team is and our lineup is,” Nolasco said. “Pitching and winning is contagious.”

Maybe the positive reinforcement around him and the change of scenery from dreary Marlins Park in Miami to lively, close-to-home Dodger Stadium has made all the difference.

More likely: Nolasco is pitching better – and smarter – than ever, and getting a little lucky, too.

Put simply, the 30-year-old has changed the way he pitches this season, relying significantly less on his fastball while incorporating more breaking pitches.

“He’s got a variety of pitches and he knows how to use them all,” Dodgers pitching coach Rick Honeycutt said this week. “What he’s doing doesn’t surprise me.”

Throughout his career, he has generally thrown the two fastballs about half the time, with something of a 40/10 split between breaking balls and off-speed pitches.

But in August, Nolasco threw a smaller percentage of fastballs than he did in any of the last six seasons, the time period for which that data is available on BrooksBaseball.com.

And in that time period, Nolasco never threw as few fastballs – again, as a percentage of his total pitches – as he did to beat the Chicago Cubs on Wednesday.

Of the 117 pitches he threw in eight dominant, shutout innings, he threw just 38 fastballs – 33 percent – and just 16 were of the four-seam variety, his longtime go-to pitch.

Two of the Cubs’ three hits came off those 16 four-seamers. On the year, opponents are hitting .347 off Nolasco’s four-seam fastball – and better than .300 for his career.

They’re hitting just .179 off his slider this season, his most prominent pitch now that he’s de-emphasized the hard stuff.

That seems the most noteworthy source of his improvement.

Nolasco, who will be a free agent come November, is making $11.5 million in 2013 and could fetch a four-year deal with an average annual value even higher than that on the open market, considering he can make a case as the best and most durable starter available.

He says he would prefer to stay in Los Angeles.

“We’re just going to have to see what happens,” Nolasco said. “I’m from here, and obviously this is where I want to be. If you focus on winning, all that stuff will play itself out.”

Included in that “stuff” is the Dodgers’ impending playoff run, which Nolasco admits has motivated him.

“I know what’s at stake here,” he said after his win Wednesday. “A lot.”

KEMP’S FIRST DAY

Dodgers center fielder Matt Kemp went 0-for-5 as the designated hitter for High-A Rancho Cucamonga on Thursday, in the first game of his rehab assignment for a sprained left ankle.

Batting second, he grounded out sharply to second in his first at-bat, then grounded into a double play, struck out, grounded out to third and flied out to center.

Kemp suffered the sprain July 21, the same day he returned from a hamstring strain that had cost him two weeks.

He is scheduled to play at least two more games for Rancho Cucamonga, likely including some time in the outfield.

Because major league rosters expand from 25 to 40 on Sunday, the Dodgers could activate Kemp without another move.

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